Eat chicken, not pork, to beat inflation

Eat chicken instead of pork to beat inflation, says
Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, who used to host a television
cooking show.

In Thailand, pork costs about twice as much as chicken, said the prime
minister on his "Samak-Style Talk Show'' on television earlier in March."If
you have pork with basil and chicken with basil, most people will choose the
chicken,'' he said. "So, if pork is now expensive, why don't you eat chicken for
a while,'' he added.

Consumer prices in Thailand rose at the fastest pace in 20 months in
February. China's inflation also accelerated to an 11-year high, with pork
surging 63% from a year earlier, Bloomberg reports. Vietnam's inflation rate
climbed to a 13-year high.

The worst snow storms in five decades at the start of the year may have
killed 874,000 pigs, the government said in Feb. In 2007, China's proposal to
increase pork imports sparked a "large international reaction", forcing the
government to change plans, Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said.

Thais are taking the prospect of eating more chicken in stride. The
benchmark index of consumer confidence reached an 11-month high in February, as
the nation's first elected government since a September 2006 coup pledged to
increase spending to boost economic growth.